How big is the influence of Barbara and Mickey G?Both, Barbara and Michael are creative heads who are behind most of the stories of the Bond movies. A Bond movie is a work between the producers, the screen writers and me. We all were sitting in one room and discussed our ideas.

What did you try to change?I have built up the female main character. The same I did with the smaller roles. Somehow those lovely small characters like Kerim Bey in From Russia With Love disappeared. I’ve tried to change that. I want those people to return in the Bond movies. Well, and another big decission was made about the end. During shooting we’ve regocnized that we were shooting a classical Bond finale. But I didn’t want just the bomb tick boom boom end. So we’ve developped the end and had to re-shoot some scenes.

And the studio did let you do that?The studio was clever enough to realize that you have to spent a lot of money to earn a lot of money.

How do you like XXX?I liked it as action film. But give them 10 years and you’ll see what happens. “Lethal Weapon” made four, “Die Hard” three. I don’t believe XXX will make more than three. John Calley from Sony doesn’t like the Broccoli Clan. Maybe that was the reason why he praised his movie so much.